Professor of Medicine
Cedars Sinai
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Rekha Murthy, MD, is an infectious diseases physician, healthcare epidemiologist and physician executive with over 25 years of experience in healthcare leadership, clinical quality and patient safety at Cedars-Sinai, where she served in various leadership roles, including as Hospital Epidemiologist and as Vice President for Medical Affairs and Associate Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Murthy is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cedars-Sinai and Professor of Clinical Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
A leading expert in healthcare quality, epidemiology, infection prevention and emerging infectious diseases, Dr. Murthy has leadership experience in guiding and influencing policy on these topics at local, state, and national levels. Dr. Murthy has directed organizational preparation and response at the largest hospital in Los Angeles which serves a diverse and multicultural patient population. Through her extensive career, she led Cedars-Sinai’s response to numerous major public health crises, including Ebola, H1N1, SARS, antibiotic resistant microbes, device-associated outbreaks, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Murthy served as medical director of the Department of Hospital Epidemiology for 21 years, bringing an innovative and comprehensive approach to infection prevention that made Cedars-Sinai a role model for hospitals nationwide. In 2015, she was honored with the California Hospital Association’s Ritz E. Heerman Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the improvement of patient care during the Ebola crisis. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. Dr. Murthy has authored numerous scientific publications and books. Her research interests include emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance.
Dr. Murthy earned her medical degree at Queen's University School of Medicine in Kingston, Canada. She completed internship and residency programs in internal medicine at Queen's University and at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She then completed clinical and research fellowships in infectious diseases at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and the UCLA-San Fernando Valley Program. She is board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
Careers in Hospital Epi and Infection Control
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
11:10 AM – 12:15 PM US PT